The causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), Mycobacterium tuberculosis, infects roughly a third of the world's population. Much of this is sub-clinical and latent.

TB pathogenesis research currently focuses on delineating the mechanism of latency and reactivation from latency.

The laboratory has been studying a family of operons called mce (mce1-4) that resemble ABC transporters, possibly involved in lipid transport across the cell wall of M. tuberculosis. The phenotype of mutants disrupted in the operon are studied in mouse models.

The basic pathogenesis research has led to several translational research activities